According to UK-based market research firm Merchant Research & Consulting Ltd., global sulfuric acid supply remains tight, while total demand for it has been growing by 7% a year.

The nearest future will witness the changes in the sulphur production structure. For the next 2 or 3 years, sulfur supply and demand is expected to be reasonably well balanced. Severe sulfur surpluses, however, are expected beginning in 2010 with acceleration thereafter as a result of increased production. Regional demand for sulfur has been steadily growing mainly thanks to China and India.

The increase in demand for sulphur is spurred by the rise in the use of sulphuric acid in the manufacture of phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Main Sulphur consumers are large (more than 1m mt/y) producers of fertilizers: the USA, Morocco, Tunisia, India, China and Brazil. .

Major sulphur producers include the USA, Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, which account for 65% of global volume.

The global sulfur industry remained divided into two sectors ― discretionary and nondiscretionary. In the discretionary sector, the mining of sulfur or pyrites is the sole objective; this voluntary production of native sulfur or pyrites is based on the orderly mining of discrete deposits with the objective of obtaining as nearly a complete recovery of the resource as economic conditions permit. In the nondiscretionary sector, sulfur or sulfuric acid is recovered as an involuntary byproduct; the quantity of output subject to demand for the primary product irrespective of sulfur demand. Discretionary sources, once the primary sources of sulfur in all forms, represented 10.5% of the sulfur produced in all forms worldwide in 2005. Small quantities of native sulfur were produced in Asia, Europe, and South America. The importance of pyrites to the world sulfur supply has significantly decreased; China and Finland were the only countries of the top producers whose primary sulfur source was pyrites. About 80.0% of pyrite world production was in China.

Of the 25 countries listed in table below that produced more than 500,000 t of sulfur, 18 obtained the majority of their production as recovered elemental sulfur. These 25 countries produced 92.9% of the total sulfur produced worldwide.

Sulfur and sulfuric acid will continue to be important in agricultural and industrial applications, although consumption will be less than production. Because sulfuric acid consumption for phosphate fertilizer production was expected to increase at a lower rate than some other uses, phosphate may become less dominant in sulfur consumption but remain the leading end use.

The significant part of world extraction of sulfur is absorbed by the paper industry. Connec-tions of sulfur help to allocate cellulose. To make 1 ton of cellulose, it is necessary to spend more than 100 kgs of sulfur.

In agriculture sulfur is applied both in its elementary condition, and in various connections. It is a part some mineral fertilizers and preparations for pest control.

However, the basic consumer of sulfur is chemical industry. Approximately half of sulfur ex-tracted in the world is used in manufacturing of sulfuric acid. It is necessary to burn about 300 kg of sulfur to receive 1 ton of a sulfuric acid.

Because of its flammable nature, sulfur also finds use in matches, gunpowder, and fireworks. Sulfur is used as the light-generating medium in the rare lighting fixtures known as sulfur lamps. Elemental sulfur crystals are commonly sought after by rock collectors for their brightly colored polyhedron shapes.

Connections of sulfur are widely used in the petrochemical industry. In particular, they are necessary in manufacturing of antidetonators, lubricant substances for the equipment of ul-trahigh pressure; in the cooling oils, accelerating processing of metal, contains sometimes up to 18 % of sulfur.

The Sulfuric Acid Market Research also features the following information:

Sulphuric acid market review;
Sulphuric acid market in the CIS countries;
Prices for sulphur and sulphuric acid;
The list of prospective consumers of sulphuric acid;
To name only a few subjects.

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by Marina Kulikova (few years ago!)